Movie Night with Paul Verhoeven: LIFE OF BRIAN

Thursday, April 8, 2010

We’re proud to welcome legendary director Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers, RoboCop) in person April 8 to present Monty Python’s LIFE OF BRIAN as part of our ongoing “Movie Night” series. Verhoeven — the subject of our popular recent midnight series “Base Instincts: Verhoeven in the U.S.A.” — will talk about LIFE OF BRIAN, his career, and Jesus in a special Q&A session after the film.

In 1985, Verhoeven became the only non-theologian admitted into Los Angeles’s Jesus Seminar, a group of 77 eminent scholars in theology, philosophy, linguistics, and biblical history. Verhoeven is the author of the new book Jesus of Nazareth (Seven Stories Press), exploring his lifelong fascination with the facts and fictions surrounding the life of Jesus. Copies of Jesus of Nazareth will be available for purchase at our concession stand; there will be a book signing with Verhoeven following the screening.

About LIFE OF BRIAN:

“Terry Jones’s Sunday-school travesty follows the career of the unintentionally messianic Brian of Nazareth. It’s a hearty burlesque in which the three wise men signal their presence with a discreet belch and lisping Pontius Pilate (Michael Palin) can’t stop babbling about his “fwiend” Biggus Dickus.

“Graham Chapman is appropriately nonplussed in the Gene Wilder-ish role of Brian while, tricked out in fake beards, the rest of the gang (John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle) pop up as centurions, prophets, terrorists from the People’s Front of Judea, and wiseass members of the rabble.” – J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“Verhoeven may be the bravest and most assured satirist in Hollywood, insofar as he succeeds in making big genre movies no one knows whether to take seriously or not.” – Michael Atkinson

About “Movie Night”:

In our “Movie Night” series, we turn over a theater to special guests and let them call the shots. Audiences can discover what some of their favorite authors, musicians, artists, and filmmakers would pick if it were Movie Night at their house. Participants appear in person to acknowledge the brilliance of a timeless classic, spotlight an unsung gem, or defend a guilty pleasure. Past guests include filmmaker David Gordon Green, Slovenian theorist and philosopher Slavoj Zizek, singer-songwriter-actor Will Oldham, director and Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam, French auteur Gaspar Noe, author Jonathan Lethem, performer and director John Cameron Mitchell, iconoclastic filmmaker David Lynch, actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini, provocative director James Toback, and comedian and “Saturday Night Live” cast member Fred Armisen and Canadian cineaste Guy Maddin.

A big congratulations to the four films we’re playing that took home major prizes from the New York Film Critics Circle: THE BABADOOK for Best First Film, CITIZENFOUR for Best Nonfiction Film, TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (opening Dec 24, advance tickets now on sal …

While the MPAA has assigned CITIZENFOUR and BOYHOOD ratings of R, recommending that no one under 17 be admitted without a parent or guardian, IFC Center feels that both films are appropriate viewing for mature adolescents. Accordingly, the theater will adm …